Is Kelvin Sampson related to Ralph Sampson? Exploring the basketball icons' association with Houston

NCAA Basketball: Final Four-Houston Practice - Source: Imagn

Kelvin Sampson and Ralph Sampson have close associations with Houston and basketball. With the Houston Cougars set to compete in the 2025 March Madness tournament's Final Four and the Houston Rockets having a phenomenal season in the NBA, it has been a great year for Houston basketball.

Kelvin Sampson and Ralph Sampson are associated with the Houston Rockets of the NBA. While Ralph was a star for the team in the '80s and Kelvin was the team's assistant coach from 2011 to 2014, they were never on the team simultaneously, nor are they related in any way.

Is Kelvin Sampson related to Ralph Sampson?

No, Kelvin Sampson is not related to Ralph Sampson. Kelvin is from North Carolina. He grew up in the Lumbee Native American community. Meanwhile, Ralph was born and raised in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Ralph became a member of the Houston basketball community before Kelvin, getting drafted to the team with the first pick in 1983. He stayed with the team through the 1987 season, becoming a four-time all-star. Conversely, Kelvin did not come to Houston until he became the Rockets' assistant coach in 2011. He left the team in 2014.

Kelvin Sampson's family

Kelvin Sampson has a large family. He was born to John and Eva Sampson in 1955 and grew up in North Carolina. He has a twin sister, Karen, and two siblings, Ursula and Suzanne. Karen died in 2023.

Kelvin is married to Karen Lowry. Together, they have a daughter, Lauren, and a son, Kellen. Kellen followed in his father's coaching steps and is an assistant coach for the Houston Cougars basketball team.

Kelvin Sampson's coaching career

Kelvin Sampson started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Michigan State in 1979. He earned his first head coaching job at Montana Tech in 1981. He got head coaching jobs at Washington State, Oklahoma, and Indiana before getting his first NBA job in 2008. He was an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Houston Rockets until 2014.

However, in 2014, Sampson returned to college and took a job with the Houston Cougars. Sampson and the Cougars are set to compete in the Final Four against Duke on Saturday. This is the fourth time in his career that Sampson has reached the Final Four, but he has not reached beyond it.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Abhimanyu Gupta